¿How many “Fathers” does the Son have? (translated by Jorge Ostos)

This is a popular question from the Unicitarians throughout the Internet.

Whose Son is the Christ? Is God’s or Holy Spirit’s? (Matthew 1:18-20). Every time that our Lord Jesus Christ said to his Father, he did it regarding to God the Heavenly Father, (YHWH) then, being
the Heavenly Father the Christ’s father, and having been conceived by the Holy Spirit, doesn’t mean this, that the Holy Spirit is the Heavenly Father?
Main mistakes To presuppose that the Father is the very Holy Spirit taking as a reference only this passage from the Scripture.

Things to consider
This approach can be broken down on a number of assumptions that seeks to lead us by a “reductio ad absurdum” to conclude that the person of the Father is the same of the Holy Spirit.
First of all, it means that Jesus had two fathers: the Father, and the Holy Spirit. Secondly, as it is indicate by the person who asks the question, Jesus Christ, always speaks in reference to God the
Father; all this leads us to conclude that apparently, the Holy Spirit was another “father” of the Son or the very person of the “Father”. It is expected that the average Unicitarian denies that the Holy Spirit is “other father” (reductio ad absurdum) to conclude as valid its presupposition: the Father is the same Holy Spirit. In this equation neo-modalist1 only has to be included that behind the Father is Jesus there, the only person behind the Deity.

Whilst it is true that there is one God, we must let the Bible define what this means. The Bible
makes it clear that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are distinct persons:

1. The Father sends the Son (Galatians 4: 4; 1 John 4:14)
2. The Father sends the Spirit (John 14:26; Galatians 4: 6)
3. The Son doesn’t speak for himself, but as the Father taught him (John 8:28; 12:49)
4. The Spirit does not speak on his own, but on behalf of Christ (John 16: 13-15)
5. The Father loves the Son and the Son loves the Father (John 3:35; 5:20; 14:31)
6. The Father and the Son are two witnesses (John 5: 31-37; 8: 16-18)

7. The Father and the Son glorify one another (John 17: 1,4,5), and the Spirit glorifies Jesus, the
Son (John 16:14)
8. The Son advocates for us before the Father (1 John 2: 1 Greek paracletos), Jesus the Son sends
the Holy Spirit, who is another lawyer (John 14: 16,26)
9. Jesus Christ is not the Father, but the Son of the Father (2 John 3) 2

Matthew 1:18 (www.blueletterbible.org)

Based on the distinction between the Father and the Holy Spirit and the fact that the Son concerns to only one as a Father, we can hardly accept the Unicitarian explanation that the Father and the Spirit are the person of Jesus. Let’s clarify which is the participation of the Holy Spirit in the incarnation3 of the Son of God. This work can be summarized mainly as creating, not a new person, but of a human nature, which was adopted by the Son in union with His divine nature (John 1: 1), in only one Person4 We cannot ignore the participation of the Trinity in this supernatural act of conception. Luke 1:31- 35 evidenced both the operation of the Holy Spirit and the Father, which states their performance in the shape of the shadow of the Alm

ighty who indeed, the Holy One would be born, would be called Son [of the Almighty]. Also before his incarnation, the same eternal Son of God proclaims his desire to enter into this earthly world to do the Father’s will (Hebrews 10: 5-10). Finally and returning to Matthew 1:18, we can add that the expression that appears there is literally gastri equein and means “to have in the belly.”5 Significantly, this physical begetting, is never credited to Joseph (Mary’s husband) as it is clearly expressed in Matthew 1: 1-16, this is because the Son is the Son of the Father (2 John 3).

Answer
Although the Holy Spirit worked in the virginal conception of Mary for the sake of the incarnation of the Son of God, for all the above, we conclude that he is not the Father; nor it’s Scriptural or logical to say anything as the Son having “two fathers”.
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1 In classical modalism, the “roles” of Father, Son and Holy Spirit can not be manifested simultaneously. Nowadays, the Unicitarians
claim that Jesus (according to them, the only person in the Godhead) can act simultaneously on the roles of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
2 What it is the Trinidad and what do Christians believe? [¿Qué es la Trinidad y qué creen los cristianos?]Rose Publishing Brochure “The
Trinity” [La Trinidad] (2008)
3 Read “manifestation in the flesh” [manifestación en carne] by the Unicitarians
4 Abrham Kuyper, Chapter VIII. On the Work of the Holy Spirit
5 Vine Dictionary “Conceive” article
6 That is not a mere impersonal human nature or coat meat (as David Bernard conceptualized the Son) that the Father uses to appear
as a man (… and at the end of it he will end up being the same Jesus)